TST members and local groups begin another mass departure as Lucien Greaves clarifies once again that the “freedom to offend” does not include him as a target

5/31/24: Article updated from original publish date as more information became available and more TST groups and prominent figures publicly exited the org. Additional events after May 31 will not be updated here.

Starting May 10, a long-simmering power struggle within Salem, Mass.-based “The Satanic Temple” spilled over into public, with each additional response from TST co-owner, co-founder, and primary national spokesperson Doug “Lucien Greaves” Misicko accelerating the departures of prominent figures in the org and even whole local groups.

We’re going to try to present as much information on this situation as possible and in-full for people to be able to reference for themselves. However, we have a point of view:

The Satanic Temple is an abusive business/religious organization run by two thin-skinned authoritarian men who look at everyone else involved in their “religion” as interchangeable resources to be extracted so long as they are convenient and suppliant; people attracted to the idea of rebelling against tyranny (the way TST markets itself) tend to resist this dynamic when they realize that’s what’s happening, thus local groups and individuals are regularly breaking off or being expelled.

People are allowed to come to other conclusions, but the purpose here is to try to make it easier for people to see for themselves what’s going on, the sort of cult-of-personality The Satanic Temple is cultivating, and that these frequent schisms are not necessarily a bug but a feature of how TST is set up and what it’s trying to do.

When Doug Misicko a.k.a. “Lucien Greaves” tells you he’d rather have a handful of people personally loyal to him than a mass movement that has grown beyond him, there is no reason to try to pretend he is saying anything else than exactly what he is saying.

If you are someone who used to be in TST, and especially if you’re someone who used to be in leadership, you should speak up under your own name about how you’ve come to realize the Temple was not actually what it promised to be, or what you yourself may even have promised others it was. You have a responsibility as penance to be at least as loud denouncing it as you were endorsing it.

The more of you who do so, the safer you’ll all be.

But, if you still don’t have that in you, at least pass whatever you can to admin@the.satanic.wiki and create an account to add to The.Satanic.Wiki proper so others can understand the history and how this all connects.

TST will keep using people up, grifting people, and abusing people until they are stopped, and the only way to stop them is by being as loud about what they really are as TST has had people lying about them.

Inciting Incident

Lucien Greaves “Invitation To Leave” email

As far as things generally “public facing” this is where it starts: Doug Misicko sending an email on May 10 where he demonstrates criticism of him is equivalent to undermining The Satanic Temple itself (and unacceptable).

We’re presenting this in full as much as possible, but, uh, don’t feel obligated to read every word. You will get the gist pretty quickly.

Two things to take special note of, however: “the sudden uproar of random internal nobodies with delusions of grandeur” and “[i]f you feel you have outgrown TST, feel free to get the fuck out of TST” are both really telling and seem to have motivated a lot of people to act.

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Canadian TST Minister responds

Then a soon-to-be-ex-Minister from TST Canada’s Atlantic Coast congregation, Neacail MacGille-Eathain responded — politely! — to Misicko’s digital harangue; that email thread was posted to Reddit by another member of TSTAC’s congregation, including the final email of Doug Misicko’s immediate and unilateral expulsion of that person.

Neacail MacGille-Eathain to Lucien, Asmodeus, Jonathan Crowson While I do appreciate your offer to leave, I will not be taking that road. It was not my intent to suggest that the biggest problem we face is the cancellation of SatanCon, the focus of my post was that it was done in the name of Unity and we had not, until now, seen what the plan was for that.

The emails from the Administrative Committee and ROC reaching out to ask how we could help close this divide were ignored with silence, as were the emails from personal accounts. The Patreon reference was that after these committee emails were sent you had posted on Patreon that you were lacking support from the community for the unity despite two large committees reaching out and at least a handful of individuals doing the same. I heard that you were not too impressed that TST Florida decided to have their own large event to fill the absence felt by the general TST community. When it comes down it to, SatanCon is not “owed to us but as the largest unifying event it hurt some people when it was taken away in the name of unity.

My problem is not that you have a patreon account or make money from it, I know this is a source of income and TST does not pay you.

I do not seek Satan fame and I am not a “whistle blower” or detractor. In my mind these were light- hearted memes and I did not think anyone would take them to heart or see them as an attempt to sow seeds of discontent in a saw similar to Queer Satanic. I sat on Administrative Committee for years, represented my region on ROC, I have been on the Religious Services team since its creation and am one of the founding members of the Temple Liaison Committee, I recorded an elective lesson for Ordination and am in the process of finalizing the questions. I established the first satanic religious non- profit under the Societies Act in my province as well as almost finishing the application for the first Canadian Government recognized Satanic charity (we will be recognized by the CRA which is the Canadian IRS). I do a lot for the community and do not seek fame through using my name for selling anything to make me a profit unlike some well-known names/faces in the organization.

I look forward to the Director of Ministry being a member of EM, it will be good for the general community of leaders to see EM at the SoC town halls because at 100% of the town halls I hosted while on Administrative Committee they were absent and without their representative, Rachael, being at most. It will be good to have that connection with the boots on the ground for sure. Since the original email talking about the divide between the pillars I have talked to many leaders and it is a resounding agreement that SoC, Campaigns and Ministry all work REALLY well together and collaborate amazingly. I hope that EM being present at SoC Town Halls and witnessing the work that is done within the pillars you will see this apparent divide is not pillars pitted against each other, it is solely the disconnect of EM from the daily activities of the rest of the organization

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Lucien Greaves “fires” Canadian Minister

I accept your resignation.

Lucien Greaves
Cofounder, spokesperson
The Satanic Temple

Deeper in the thread a u/azhulaalso clarifies:

First of all, I did not post these memes. These memes were on a private, not public, page and many other ministers commented their own takes. The person who was forced to resign is the ONLY person who received any type of communication from the appropriate person(S). I can’t legally speak on the inner workings of TST lest I open myself to lawsuits.

Just very normal things for a religion telling you that it’s a good thing they will send their Satanic Ministers into your schools: TST Ministers are afraid to talk about the inner workings of the religious organization they’re part of lest they get sued.

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Memes mocking Lucien Greaves

An Imgur album of some of the memes in question, by the way.

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“Internal Nobodies” rebel publicly

Surprisingly or not, a bunch of people who had stuck with Misicko and TST through the last schism with David Silverman found this to be a bridge too far as Misicko reminded everyone that, no, The Satanic Temple is not more than just him (and Cevin Soling); TST is entirely equivalent to him and his wants. Everyone else are “Internal Nobodies”, as he put it in his email.

Starting May 11 and continuing regularly for the next two weeks and beyond, people who felt — rightly and damningly — that they had been crucial in building TST into what it is today were upset to have all their work completely and openly disregarded by Misicko.

Today I graduated from Internal Nobody to External Nobody.

— Triggur (@triggurgoat) May 12, 2024

Today I graduated from an Internal Nobody to External Nobody.

Triggur Goat

The standard you have set is that’s it’s fine for you to be a dick and not apologize so why should anyone else? Least of all over a meme on a personal page. File a complaint with SurCo like everyone else.

— Samantha Sphinx (@SphinxSamantha) May 11, 2024

The standard you have set is that it’s fine for you to be a dick and not apologize so why should anyone else? Least of all over a meme on a personal page. File a complaint with SurCo [Suryan Council] like everyone else.

Samantha Sphinx

Go ahead and look at the FB BS again. I do not think it is too much to ask that the ministers of TST not be openly hostile to the rest of TST, inside or outside of ministry itself. These are not radical, difficult standards.

Lucien Greaves @LucienGreaves

I just did. You seem to be quoting another person entirely. I’ve combed through it repeatedly, and I am looking at a comment from someone else who references “outgrowing EM/TST proper.” It’s not Neacail.

Jenny Green @JennyGreenest

Oh, there’s a whole group of Ministry talking that trash, and it’s a real problem. It doesn’t have to be punitive, but they should just go. Anybody who doesn’t want to be a part of it should go.

Lucien Greaves

Nice to know that’s how you feel about people who knew you in person and worked for you for years. Have fun running this ALONE 🤣🤣🤣

Samantha Sphinx @SphinxSamantha

There are a lot of people who want to work with TST. We don’t need to be populated with people who don’t.

Lucien Greaves

My experience has been that there have never been enough hands to do this work.

Jenny Green @JennyGreenest

I would rather have 5 people dedicated to TST and happy to be a part of it than 50,000 people who work in TST hostile to it.

Lucien Greaves

Lucien Greaves posts “An Apology” on Substack

Because it’s Doug, of course he had to go out and keep posting through it, telling everyone, “Fuck off. I’m the only important one here.”

He did this May 12 on his Substack with “An Apology” that was clearly anything-but; that was mirrored by loyalist TST sockpuppet Twitter account “Victory Spirit” and then again on Reddit.

I often receive messages from people both inside and outside of The Satanic Temple who claim to find avenues for further involvement within our organization impenetrable and unwelcoming. Usually, the complainant will assume that there is an entrenched friend group operating for their own benefit, and sometimes it is claimed that some political disagreement or misunderstanding has rendered a member persona non grata. This has troubled me, but I have also assumed that there was little I could do. For one, it may be that the complaints came from genuinely undesirable candidates or, even if not, it was possible that the judgment of the various groups were guided by a system that was effective in weeding out most of the worst candidates most of the time, with some candidates being unintentionally wrongly disregarded, and maybe that is the best any of them can hope to do. In any case, I felt there was little I could do about it. For the good of the organization I intentionally put myself at a distance from our ministry and congregations, giving them the space to manage their activities themselves.

That distancing myself from the ministry and congregations could be for the overall good of the organization might be a counter-intuitive claim to some, but I arrived at that position after a history of failed local chapters and internal melt-downs that typically result in people decrying me personally, regardless of how little interaction with me they may have actually had. Regardless of what the situation may have actually been, it was always more attention-grabbing to claim that any problems were the result of some type of background personal battle with me. Though never having had contact with me at all never really prevented anybody from going this route, I assumed that if structurally it was all but certain that they needn’t have my permission to operate, and did not take instructions from me at all, at least internally people would be able to better recognize a lying opportunist making false claims, and lying opportunists making false claims would see less opportunity in creating false narratives at the expense of the organization. Committees of peers operating under pre-established organizational guidelines with my general non-intervention as known policy seemed the best way to go. In any case, I already have enough responsibilities that I attend to in service to The Satanic Temple, and it is hardly plausible that I take on more. And it is, I can say in complete confidence that I am not merely expressing a failure of nerves, a high-stress job. I do not think many people would do the work I do the way I do it. I do it because I believe in our cause, I believe in the value and values of Satanism, and I believe that efforts to advance theocratic interests in the United States and elsewhere pose an existential threat to democracy. Our lawsuits, tracking of legislation, strategy, structure, messaging, media, protocols, advocacy, testimony, etc, are all things I have a first-hand role in (along with a small team or teams), and it is often difficult for me to find the time to create the content for which I actually get paid. The ministry does not pay me, nor do we pay it. Ordained ministers have the potential to profit from their ordination by way of ministerial work, such as weddings and funerals, but beyond paying a nominal fee for ordination coursework, there is no buy-in and there are no dues or start-up fees.

The fact is that our ability to finance our projects waxes and wanes based upon our presence in the media, public support for our lawsuits, campaigns, and various publicly-facing efforts that drive support. Our ministry, and other branches of The Satanic Temple, have had their own internal schisms and breakdowns through time that are indicative of our polarized times, and not entirely unexpected in any social environment. However, somewhere along the line a narrative took hold among some: the narrative that myself, and the small team that composes the Executive Ministry, are not working on behalf of the organization while maintaining the relative autonomy of ministry and congregations, but that we are irrelevant to The Satanic Temple overall. Not only are we irrelevant, but counter-productive, preventing them from doing the things that they think The Satanic Temple should really be doing, almost always in reference to demands that we allow absolute political positions in our name, or allow them to sell merchandise bearing our name and/or imagery. These are not new standards, but there often seem to be fresh complaints.

This has been an irritating fact for some time, but again felt as though it was something I could do little about. People like to speak ill of the boss, apparently, even when that “boss” is making zero demands, and I assumed they might be mortified to learn just how often I actually do see them denigrating me and misrepresenting my work. And the sad fact is that it is impossible to not feel, to some degree, held hostage in an environment where any negative exchange is certain to be placed online, without context, with some constructed whistleblower narrative that claims to show my true colors, included with various accusations about my nefarious ways. But I have had a suspicion that a prevalent mood of hostility against the organization from within the organization was creating broader counter-productive social dynamics that go beyond disparaging Executive Ministry. Despite a clear majority of dedicated and reasonable ministers, disagreements between ministers amongst themselves or with other membership have sometimes revealed disregard for any sense of professional ministerial conduct, an unwillingness to engage in open non-judgmental dialogue or act as a judicious mediator, as one might hope a minister for any religion might. Over the past year, people — good people — have left feeling ostracized, attacked, and even betrayed by this behavior. In the meantime, still without intervention from myself or the rest of Executive Ministry, open contempt against us has grown, with some congregations taking to the practice placing bizarre disclaimers on their public-facing materials inappropriately advising that they are somehow not affiliated with the global organization. It seems to have all the makings of another schism, the likes of which people seem to work themselves up into regardless of the circumstances: if we intervene in any way and try to direct people’s work, the wannabe rebels cry that we are exercising inappropriate authority, we leave them to manage their affairs, they stir revolt against our somehow oppressive irrelevance.

But while I had grown despondent in thinking that such dynamics were an unfortunate expression of human nature, and that there was no point risking further damage by trying to mitigate an uncontrollable fire, growing silent internal support has let me know that they see the toxic dynamics, disagree with the positions propagated by the aimless malcontents, and wish to see changes that will open new avenues for participation. Some time ago, we began considering structural models to unify the Executive Ministry with the ministry, so that they are in collaboration with us. All of this is a slow process with minimal personnel and resources. In the meantime, we have seen politicians attempt to outlaw Satanism, ban The Satanic Temple specifically from public accommodations, we have been navigating threats to our safety, and experienced a bombing attempt upon our headquarters. In all that time, the people who habitually denigrate me and the Executive Ministry never seem to have changed their focus from drawing internal suspicion toward us and our worth to confronting the very real existential threats we face on the outside. The past number of months have been harrowing, and I have found myself having to choose between one high-priority item or another equal high-priority item at a time. Last week I had to miss going to court for our oral arguments in order to attend a meeting with the FBI. In consultation with security analysts, I am overhauling some aspects of my life in ways that are less than convenient, and all the while I am compelled to create content often enough to keep paying subscribers.

It was against this backdrop that I was sent a series of screenshots the other day of a group of our ministers complaining on Facebook. A minister had posted a series of memes generally conveying my perceived worthlessness and ineptitude, mostly decrying the fact that we canceled SatanCon this year. The same people who seem to have nothing to say when politicians openly try to render our religious practice and expression illegal, the same people who have nothing to say when somebody tries to kill us in our headquarters, have something to complain about when we fail to finance and organize our annual gathering for them. Further, I was mocked for apparently doing nothing more with my time than posting on Patreon while they congratulated themselves for neither subscribing to nor reading my work. A bizarre and delusional dialogue unfolded where it was suggested (again) that they have done all the work that is attributed to me. There was chatter about how they had “outgrown” TST. To be clear, this was a group consisting, in part, of TST ministers. Ministers, representatives of The Satanic Temple, on Facebook, presenting themselves this way. I sent an angry email to the minister responsible.

He had no apology in his reply. I fired him. I am not sorry about that. My apology is to those who have suffered in this toxic environment waiting far too long for action to be taken. You are heard, and we are going to build a better, unified TST.

There are, of course, others in TST who are outraged by my audacity in this. So far I have seen none of them consider that their conduct may have been unprofessional, counterproductive, or even worthy of mention. Some people have resigned.

My email to the minister, now of course posted publicly on Reddit, had the subject heading “Invitation To Leave.” (You can read it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SatanicTemple_Reddit/comments/1cpqz4h/luciens_treatment_of_leadership_and_ministry/ ) It is meant to be a broad invitation. From now on, we are going to have the bare minimum standard of working with those who want to work with us, those who wish to represent and advocate for The Satanic Temple. People are free to disagree with The Satanic Temple. We are also free to insist that the people who we work with align with our mission and values, and seek to grow the organization with us, rather than undermine it and try to run off with some of its assets. Those for whom it is impossible to work with TST without disparaging other branches of the organization, the organization as a whole (“TST Global”), or individuals in the organization, it is not for them. There are a lot of people already working with us and willing to work with us, understand the gravity of this moment in the battle against theocracy, and wish to help and support us in our mission. This is for you.”

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Canadian TST member responds

How was this received? Well, a member of the group in Canada who’d had its Minister targeted replied (as u/sashalav), saying what is a common refrain from those targeted by The Satanic Temple: TST is making stuff up about them.

Comment
byu/JaneDoeThe33rd from discussion
inSatanicTemple_Reddit

I feel I need to add some context here. I am in the congregation that just lost the minister in question. We are small Atlantic Canada congregation but we do our best to follow TST ways: we have regular meetings, membership interviews, fundraisers, collecting / donating products, donating blood – we take part in every TST campaign and even donate to American-only programs (TST Heath). I think that for our size, in this location, we are as close to perfect as possible. Fired minster was in major part responsible for us being where we are and we never pretended to be anything else but one of TST congregations.

This email tries to paint us as some group causing TST schism and “talking shit about TST” or whatever – none of that is true. It just never happened. Feel free to find us on discord, look at old discussions. None of the “undermining” or “running with assets” ever happened and no related chat ever occurred.

This is all about light hearted meme, posted with personal FB account – and the first, and only, complaint about it was “you are fired” (a phrase I believe is already taken by someone else).

I signed up for tenets and community and the good we can do as a group, but I never asked for a pope and someone wielding absolute power without any due process. A simple “please take that down” would have done or even better “hey folx you are not being left behind, awesome things are coming for global TST”.

u/sashalav, May 13, 2024

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Lucien Greaves goes on a sycophant podcast

Was this the end of it? No, it was not the end of it.

After being an asshole semi-privately to the inner circle of TSTers via email, then being an asshole more publicly on Twitter, and writing a Substack post about it, Doug Misicko needed to keep talking. He moved to a new medium: a friendly podcast.

Now, in the past Misicko likely would have turned to Stephen Bradford Long’s “Sacred Tension” to peddle his propaganda with a guarantee of no pushback. But Long recently got tired of “adolescent Satanism” in terms that make it pretty clear having to answer for Misicko’s antics and priorities were irritating him, and at this point, Long is signaling a return to Christianity. It’s all genuinely very surprising.

But Long leaving the fold has opened up opportunities for Tommy and Lilin T. Lavin to fill that “Mmhmm”, “exactly” interviewer niche Misicko demands.

Ep.46: Internal Strife and the Path Forward for TST

Joined by Lucien Greaves, we delve into the controversy surrounding TST leadership and ministerial disputes that have erupted over the past week.https://t.co/kgVc3l1gN3 pic.twitter.com/lVB9p09Ii5

— Satanists Nextdoor (@satanistsnd) May 18, 2024

If you can’t make it through listening to the whole thing, at least glance at the full transcript over on The.Satanic.Wiki.

But in general, it makes a strong case that the only virtue that Doug “Lucien Greaves” Misicko (and likely co-owner Cevin “Malcolm Jarry” Soling) value is “unending boot-licking to them personally”. Which, yes, is stated pejoratively, but it can’t really be said to be an exaggeration.

Here is Misicko, from that Satanists Nextdoor episode, explaining why any deviations from “The Satanic Temple” as defined by its two owners is unforgivable:

You know, let me talk about that idea that volunteers deserve more deference when it comes to that kind of thing. I disagree. The fact that it’s volunteers makes it even less forgivable on their parts. When somebody’s working a paid job, they might have the excuse of being able to say like, look, I need the paycheck. I’m not able to look for another job right now. Of course, I don’t believe in this or the mission. I’m getting paid. You know, I totally understand that. When you’re a volunteer, there’s no excuse for you not identifying with the organization and the cause. If it’s tedium to you, if you don’t agree with it, and it’s not just a paycheck, just go.

Doug Misicko, 45:19

Because Misicko personally wants to have a good relationship with police, he’s upset that a fascist “Thin Blue Line”/”Blue Lives Matter” flag got burned at SatanCon 2023 in Boston:

So we were really disappointed when in front of all the media, they decided to go with the performance that was completely off script as far as we knew, it wasn’t run past us. And there was a Bible torn up and a Blue Lives Matter flag was torn up. And we wondered how did this happen? Nobody told us this would happen. And when we sent a letter to some of the people involved with that and said that it was not, you know, it was not in our best interest to do that. Think what you will of the police, but it’s in our best interest to not get involved with “All Cops Are Bastards” type of protest or ripping a Blue Lives Matter’s flag. Because we work very closely with the Salem PD in preserving our fucking lives on a day to day basis. And the Salem PD is good enough oftentimes- park a car directly across from our headquarters. They contact us right away if anything’s wrong. They show up immediately and we don’t want anything to damage that relationship. The relationship was already strong enough that when it turned out we were on Fox News ripping up a Blue Lives Matter flag, we were actually asked about that. And we were given the opportunity to say that really wasn’t us. And you know, it’s scary to us. Like if you give somebody a reason to wait an extra 30 seconds or fill another cup of coffee before coming to HQ, that could be the matter between life or death for us. And I think we made that clear in our letter to them. And they actually, some of them got back to us, very offended that we had the audacity to suggest that we could put words in their mouths, that we could do such a thing, that we could say this.

Doug Misicko, 20:26

Because Misicko has ties to Ukraine, TST speaks out loudly in favor of Ukrainians when they’re invaded. Because Soling is a proud Zionist who has a nonprofit set up to target Palestinian protesters on campus, TST is silent on the ongoing ethnic cleansing and massacres of Gaza. Because neither of them really seem to care about bodily autonomy or reproductive rights beyond personal aggrandizement, TST inserts itself into abortion access fights the most unhelpful ways.

Despite all of the noise last year about Misicko “stepping down” in the near future, he clarifies here once again that he never will.

And I feel like some of what really got some of the wolves hungry, was that I had expressed a desire to kind of step out of my position. That is something I would really love if I had ever been able to do, and assign somebody else. But it was, you know, everybody was ravenous, I think, over that idea, and then trying to prove my general worthlessness to try to insert themselves. And I felt like it was so very irresponsible. And it was- their opinion seemed to shift with whatever wins were blowing at the time that honestly, I didn’t think they could they could handle the job. And in the fact- in the way they talked about it, I think showed that they didn’t quite understand what the job was to begin with.

Doug Misicko, 25:43

Misicko does not view this as a collective endeavor. He views it as a business that he owns along with Cevin Soling (“Malcolm Jarry”). He doesn’t owe you a public accounting of the finances of the org or what he pays himself from it for what specific tasks, and he considers it audacious that you would even ask for that level of transparency or accountability.

People are offended that EM thinks they own the organization, but I would like to tell them we own the organization. Malcolm and I co-own the organization. And I see people all the time questioning whether we’re doing any work. And I would be able to tolerate that if it weren’t very public facing. We are working all the fucking time. We don’t have time for our lives, you know? Pretty much 100 percent of the time we’re working on things. And I have barely enough time to work on the things that actually get me paid.

Doug Misicko, 42:36

TST is not “bigger than” Misicko and Soling. TST is just collective resources extracted from suckers and privatized for Misicko and Soling to deploy as their own. And that’s not “Queer Satanic” saying so; it’s the only spokesperson the Temple has ever had telling you so directly as he unilaterally expels people he dislikes while holding Non-Disclosure Agreements and Non-Disparagement Clauses and the attendant legal threats over them.

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A second Substack hits the schism

Of course, Doug Misicko is congenitally compelled to “post through it,” so naturally on May 31, he wrote another post for his Patreon and Substack called “Satanic Summer of Fun”. It was important for him to let everyone know just how “not mad” he was about everything going on, and while words like “cult” and “dictator” are authoritarian, going forward he is definitely doing to be asserting himself much more directly and being even less tolerant of criticism of mockery at his expense.

If you want the short version, it’s “Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the Ministers and Congregations who are wrong.” (Emphasis added in all cases.)

A couple of weeks ago now, during an ongoing pitched and increasingly violent battle against theocratic incursions that now finds The Satanic Temple named directly as a target of both proposed rights-limiting legislation and violent threats, I was disgusted to see a group of our own ministers on Facebook denigrating the organization and myself for canceling our annual SatanCon in order to focus our resources on confronting this highly polarized election year. These particular ministers, it turns out, are dismissive at best, and openly hostile in some cases, against The Satanic Temple’s efforts to assert pluralism as a counterbalance against Christian Nationalist assaults on public spaces, including our lawfare to secure and preserve religious liberty for non-Christian religions and non-believers. Remarkably, these efforts for which The Satanic Temple is best known, were described by some of them as my own “pet legal projects,” even as others claimed that it is they who “do the work” that makes me “famous.”

When I dismissed one of our ministers for unbecoming conduct after confronting him about this embarrassing behavior, there followed a general meltdown amongst his ministerial coterie who indicated complete shock at learning that I could remove anybody from the organization at all. But now that I have, of course, I am a cult leader and dictator. Ever since the one was removed, others within his circle have spiraled ever further into miles of online text building bizarre narratives of delusion and outrage. Without ever considering whether or not their behavior really is unbecoming of ministerial representation of the organization, they speculate as to what is really going on here. “This seems intentional,” I have now seen it said multiple times, as though their behavior was a reasonable and necessary given, and I was simply using it as a pretext to launch a more sinister agenda. Even when they ran to Reddit, predictably, to make public their grievances in an extremely truncated telling of events that attempted to frame my response to their behavior as an irrational melt-down over a few “light-hearted memes,” the broader public response expressed disbelief that they could feign such confusion over being asked to not publicly denigrate an organization and its leadership when claiming to represent that organization.

Unable to grasp this universal organizational truism, panic set in with some ministers who apparently felt that enforcement of the most basic standards is arbitrary and impossibly prohibitive. Fearing that any one of them could be next, they began mass-downloading internal documents in hopes of taking the organization with them should they be removed. Locked out of their accounts with the explanation that the logs showed their downloading activity, and their own chats which showed the thieving intentions behind their actions, they nonetheless raised an outcry over being “locked out without explanation,” a narrative they have still lined up behind even as masses of our internal documents have been now posted publicly online (the leak now as dutifully ignored as the question of ministerial responsibility was).

Many months ago, we tried to address internal dissatisfaction by exploring the roots and possible remedies of ministerial complaints. Persistent expressions of general loathing toward The Satanic Temple and myself were assumed to have the coherence of underlying well-defined grievances. However, through surveys, we found that the primary complaint was related to their inability to create and sell TST merchandise. To the question as to what it is they wished to do with funds raised from such sales opportunities, none had an answer. 

Now, in the aftermath of all of this, and after the removal and resignations of several more ministers, I was sent a screen shot of a question that had been posed on Reddit that questioned whether I even really care that we are losing congregations and ministers, probably assuming, incorrectly, that we operate on a business model of unending growth and expansion, as though we are a fast food franchise. If the question is whether or not I am disturbed that we are losing ministers, the answer is decidedly no. Aside from the open denigration of our campaigns, mission, and management, the dissatisfied ministers (a loud and increasingly combative minority within the organization) have increasingly been drawing the ire of other ministers who feel that productive activity is being inhibited by the poor conduct and militant internal policing of the aimlessly protesting few. Members, too, have increasingly complained of ministerial misbehavior and, in fact, what we recently previously saw as an unfortunate but manageable problem of professional attitude is now revealed to be an embarrassing and generally recognized organizational blight.

I feel bad for members of congregations who, now having lost congregation heads feel unsure about their ability to interact with TST, but to them I would say that these events are clearing the path for real, productive and engaged congregations to come together with a sense of purpose in alignment with the actual mission and goals that prompted them to identify with us in the first place. Because, to be clear, none of the restrictions on merchandise sales, nor the agreements we demand regarding public representations bearing our name are new developments, and it is difficult to sympathize with those who sign on only to revolt against exactly what they signed on to.

But still, it must be disturbing to lose congregations and ministers, is it not? Surely, an organization can not survive too much of that, can it? That seems to be the underlying assumption as some ministers still, in the depths of delusional entitlement issue demands and ultimatums. In fact, we can not only survive it, but we are already flourishing from it, just as intermittent controlled conflagrations can increase the health of forested areas. Since addressing the problem of ministerial professionalism we have received an outpouring of supportive messages, professional volunteer offers of support, and even an increase in donations as people who previously felt pushed away from us by this internal division are coming back. My own subscriber base has increased dramatically as a result of all of this, and excitement is building among collaborators who are creating proposals for reforms and structural revisions that seek to open the doors to increased interaction with all facets of the organization, focused on unified goals. 

Many ministers had been patiently waiting for this day to come, and now it is, I will admit, a bit embarrassing that they had to wait this long. For it would not be accurate to simply say that the ministers who object to the organization and its objectives are, on balance, counterproductive. They are simply counterproductive, with nothing at all offsetting the scale in the other direction. This being the case, the outcome we are seeing now should not be understood as a bold and unpredictable maneuver, but an inevitability. This is how things have worked: ministers have paid a fee for ordination coursework, a necessary and not-profitable fee that maintains the costs associated with the program. They have no buy-in, dues, or start-up fees paid to TST. Their congregations have been independent with regards to their scheduled activities, meet-ups, and management. They are constrained by the limits placed on their ability to profit in our name and ability to speak broadly on behalf of TST, and that is all. They are not made to fundraise, and the ministers-in-revolt have chosen not to. They are not made to engage with our campaigns, and they have chosen not to. They are not made to endorse the organization, recruit membership (we do not proselytize), or, till now, even behave with any professional dignity, and they chose not to. All of this leaves them with nothing to leverage in trying to negotiate their claims, and nothing for us to lose in their departures. The only leverage they ever had was in the threat that they will steal our property, which they already have in seeing to it that our operational documents have been posted online, and the threat that they would decry our “abusive” practices to the general public online, which is easily reduced to comedy with the explanation of ministry’s relationship to the organization outlined above. It is one thing not to support the mission of the organization through general disengagement with the war we wage against Christian Nationalists, but at the point where we have people who are openly hostile to those efforts, as well as hostile to the organization itself, and they are constantly engaged in the activity of dissuading others from engaging in that mission, they should reasonably expect to be removed from the organization. Especially as their claim to productive collaboration lies in their maintenance of the internal culture of TST, through various online subgroups chats and committees, where their conflict with founding organizational goals creates a toxic and divisive environment that is, again, nothing but counter-productive.

The upshot of all of this is that I am excited to begin personally working with the ministers who have held their own through the abuses hurled at them by their former peers, and I am excited to collaborate with them in re-constructing the ordination program which previously failed to clearly define the role of a minster and appropriately outline ministerial conduct and responsibilities. I have already begun collaborating with some ministers, and have a pile-up of others to reply to and bring into the restructuring task force. Whereas I had no real interaction with the ministry before (which oddly did not prevent some of them from objecting to my perceived tyranny), I will begin personally overseeing the ministry now. Whereas internal unrest and assaults upon organizational purpose were considered endemic and inextricable from any modern organization of a progressive bent in recent years, I think we have finally turned a corner with a belated general realization that a well-defined organizational mission is not a betrayal of all other potentially noble causes, and that in order for an organization to fulfill a purposeful mission, it must stay true to its goals.

There is so much that could be said here, but just notice how much of Misicko’s narrative relies on you believing him and only him without any supporting evidence while disbelieving everyone else involved and all of their evidence.

We have collated a lot of people talking about their frustrations with The Satanic Temple, and you can read them for yourself.

If we’ve missed it, let us know, but the only person saying “merchandise” about any of this we ever saw was Misicko. That may well be based on real complaints people had about supporting their local group’s operations, but the idea that that was the primary complaint?

There is also no reason to believe that in quantifiable metrics The Satanic Temple is coming out any better for all of this, but it’s probably true that in the sense of “purging people with institutional memory and independent bases of support” Misicko is pleased. As you read through the assessment Misicko makes about those who have left, there’s no reason for you to give him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t believe it.

“For it would not be accurate to simply say that the ministers who object to the organization and its objectives are, on balance, counterproductive. They are simply counterproductive, with nothing at all offsetting the scale in the other direction.”

Remember: if you’re still sticking in The Satanic Temple today out of duty or even outright pleased at all of the “forest” that has burned away so you can get your time in the sun closer to Doug Misicko and Cevin Soling now, this is how they will talk about you someday soon, too. And when they talk about “the organization and its objectives,” they do quite literally and without exaggeration mean themselves personally and nothing greater beyond that.

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An announcement on Slack

The evening of may 31, a post in the “Satanic Ministry” Slack followed through on Misicko’s promise in the Substack post to assert more direct, top-down control over those remaining in TST’s Ministry, with Cevin Soling or at least the “Malcolm Jarry” account delivering the news.

A message from Lucien Greaves:
“Hello all,

With so many changes occurring over the past several weeks, it has been decided that I will be taking more hands-on role with The Satanic Temple’s Ministry. I am excited to be even more involved with the evolution of our religion and community.

I have assembled a team to serve as my Ministry liaisons. They will assist me in auditing and evaluating the current ministry and ordination program to better address steps to be taken. As it currently exists, the program is exceedingly overdeveloped in some places, while entirely undeveloped in others. It had become clear that having Codes of Conduct and bureaucratized interpersonal interactions is not sufficient in order to meet our ever growing needs. The meaning, function, and ethos of ministry need to be clarified. I would like to focus on elaborating the ministerial relationship and responsibility to congregants, congregations, and the world at large beyond the letter of legalistic standards. In doing so, when applicable, I plan to expand my regular meetings with ministry and leadership in effort to foster better communication.

If you are interested in helping us explore the question of what a minister is, how we should hope to see ministers interact with congregations and the world as representatives of The Satanic Temple, and how we create a ministry that prepares ministers for that role, please reach out to my Liasion team at ministry.liaison@thesatanictemple.org. The hope is that we can build a ministry and ordination program with a strong sense of purpose that provides more guidance to ministers as to how they can manage and adjudicate situations on their own, in alignment with our values, as respected representatives of our religion with the dignity and authority to act as mediators, advisors, and officiants.

In the coming weeks, we hope to collaborate with those who seek a productive role in this restructuring to figure out what needs to be developed, introduced, or discarded to make this vision a reality, and to set our ministry apart from the many branded, isolated, online chat groups.
Please feel free to relay constructive suggestions through my liaison team as we begin this new chapter of the Satanic Ministry.

As an aside: services will be paused until further notice. We appreciate that this is a delicate time for our organization and we need the time to rebuild and plan for future endeavors. Thank you for your patience.

Hail Satan

“Malcolm Jarry”, May 31, 2024

We have to stop adding to this article at some point, so we’ll have to leave it there for now the way May 2024 ended three weeks after this all started with Misicko unilaterally firing someone via email over memes.

But if you are still in TST and you’ve made it this far, and if you’ve read through all this and you think all this is a normal way for a largely volunteer collection of for-profit and some nonprofit corporations to be run, please know that this is not normal. Business and nonprofits are often exploitative and extractive of their workers under capitalism, but what’s happening here is not typical even in that framing.

If you’ve been told not to trust us, fine, don’t trust us. But at least look — really look — at these things for yourself. We are showing you all of this so that you don’t need to take our word on anything.

Despite all of the complaints of “that’s out of context” or in the language of the second Substack an “extremely truncated telling of events,” what you should notice pretty quickly is that the less truncated and more in context these tellings get, the worse The Satanic Temple and its owners look.

TST’s narrative only holds together if you don’t look at what anyone else is saying but them or you believe that everyone who is critical of them is lying, including all of the people who until weeks before were true believers themselves.

The next two sections are going to be looking at those sorts of people in their own words.

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